Day

A fast food pizza chain that’s become a staple in shopping mall food courts is expected to file for bankruptcy as soon as next week.

“The Wall Street Journal” reports Sbarro is working for approval of a prepackaged restructuring plan that will speed the process through bankruptcy court. Last month Sbarro announced it was shutting down 155 of its 400 North American shops as part of a broad plan to better its financial situation under the guidance of a new management team.

LIRR President Helena Williams asked President Obama to appoint another Presidential Emergency Board to help solve the four-year contract impasse between the agency and labor unions representing 58-hundred Long Island Rail Road workers.

In November, the first board recommended a 17-percent raise over six years and new health care contributions from employees but that was rejected by the MTA. The federal Railway Labor Act says that a three member board of mediators would be appointed by Obama to review the negotiations and make a nonbinding recommendation.

If both sides can’t reach a deal, LIRR workers can legally strike in July.

An MTA clerical error led to a pension overpayment to the widow of a former LIRR train engineer of more than 27-thousand dollars and now the agency wants their money back.

Shirley Findel was told last week that she can pay back the money over nine years with a monthly deduction from her benefits check but she says she can’t and shouldn’t have to pay for the MTA’s mistake. The MTA error was uncovered only after Findel notified pension administrators that her husband had died last fall and a “processing error” had overpaid the couple for 214 months.

ANOTHER FORMER LONG ISLAND RAIL ROAD WORKER WAS SENTENCED IN THE DISABILITY SCAM.

FIFTY TWO YEAR OLD FRED CATALANO OF NESCONSET, A MAINTENANCE FOREMAN, WAS SENTENCED TO 37 MONTHS IN PRISON FOR DEFRAUDING THE GOVERNMENT. CATALANO WAS ONE OF ONLY 5 DEFENDANTS OF 33 CHARGED IN THE LIRR DISABILITY SCAM WHO WENT TO TRIAL.

CATALANO RETIRED FROM HIS JOB, CLAIMING HE WAS DISABLED BY BACK, NECK AND SHOULDER PAIN DESPITE FEELING WELL ENOUGH TO PRACTICE JIU JITSU. IN OTHER SENTENCINGS TO DATE, 6 RETIREES AND AN OFFICE WORKER HAVE GOTTEN PROBATION, AND 3 EX WORKERS GOT JAIL TIME TOPPING OUT AT 33 MONTHS.

Suffolk County Police have arrested a man for making graffiti on Port Jefferson Village property.

Port Jefferson Village officials reported that between February 14 and February 15, a person covered a village wall located on Surf Avenue near the entrance to the Setauket Yacht Club with graffiti, including the graffiti tag “Timothy of the Seven Seas.”

Sixth Precinct Gang Unit officers received a lead from a Port Jefferson Village Constable. After an investigation by the Gang Unit, it was determined Timothy Saunders was the man responsible for the graffiti. Officers Christopher Standard and Michael Repperger arrested Saunders last night at 11:55 p.m. in Coram. Saunders was in possession of oxycodone and hydrocodone at the time of the arrest.

Saunders, 23, of 12 Penny Drive, Calverton, was charged with Making Graffiti, Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance 4th Degree and Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance 7th Degree.

The investigation into possible additional graffiti incidents is ongoing.

Saunders was arraigned today at First District Court in Central Islip.